he joins us. nice to see you, sir. >> thanks for having me. >> so you think the president is comfortable or does he want to go off the cliff? >> well, he's being advised to go off the cliff. howard dean has said it. papatty murray said they shouldo over the cliff. i think the president sees a political victory for his party if they go over the cliff. i know republicans are concerned that there's going to be a second recession if we go over the cliff. >> what does he gain from going over the cliff? >> well, taxes go up on everyone which gives the president lots of additional money to spend on new government programs. additionally, he has all these military cuts that many liberal democrats have been hoping for for years. the third thing is he blames the republicans for everything. >> it's sort of interesting. in the campaign he wanted 800 billion in increased revenue on the rich. that's what he campaigned on, and he wanted to raise the tax rates on the rich. speaker boehner's proposal, as i understa